(As a side note: There are also issues of sovereignty regarding all the current leases with the Interior Department and I would encourage Secretary Salazar to review the leases that remove USA assets to foreign trade. In particular, the Alaskan oil and gas fields currently in use are primarily exported, regardless of the pipeline and land belonging to Americans. Any current use of drilling for oil and gas is 'billed' to the American public as commodities that will facilitate their lives and lifestyles. That is not the case. Exploitation of American resources should not include exporting to other nations. The military purpose, now and in the furture, for such resources, is enough to declare all halts to exportation of any American resources and a recall to all leases including coal bed methane.) At the EPA, Lisa Jackson is carving a way to apply the 'best science' to Human Induced Global Warming. She is wasting no time to institute policies when facts are obvious and attainable. She is making way for 'safe energy' as well as just 'alternative energy.' There is a lot 'missing' in the production of ethanol that will insure it is applied in a manner that reduces carbon dioxide emissions and I applaud her for the concentrated effort to perfection she is aiming. I encourage all scientists to submit any and all data that will help the EPA to formulate policy that will truly make 'ethanol' and 'biodiesel' better alternatives to oil and gas.Currently, companies in the USA are not only producing ethanol they are exporting it. THAT defeats the purpose of ethanol and biodiesel. The 'best practices' for these fuels are to be produced, synthesized and marketed locally. In exporting ethanol, the transportation fuel adds to the overall global deposit of CO2...The Environmental Protection Agency's proposed regulations are designed to curtail greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change and to make sure that alternative fuels, such as ethanol or biodiesel, do not have indirect effects, such as deforestation in other countries, that could inadvertently increase levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. But the administration did not take a position on key regulatory issues, instead inviting comment from scientific experts and businesses on how to measure carbon emissions from the full lifecycle of biofuels, from land use to fertilizer to manufacturing process to delivery. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson also said that existing corn ethanol distilleries or ones under construction would probably be "grandfathered," or exempt from the new regulations. Jackson's statement blunted criticism, especially from corn-based ethanol producers that have been targeted for competing with food crops and for using substantial amounts of fertilizer in fields and fossil fuels in distilleries. In a telephone call with reporters yesterday, Jackson said the administration wanted to make sure that its final rule on renewable fuels is "informed by the best science." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050503731.html
Previous to taking office as Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar backed the very controversial nomination of Gail Norton, however, since taking office within the Interior Department he has shown to be an ally to the American people in reclaiming not just their country, but, a 'safety zone' for their country on Earth.Interior revokes Bush rule on endangered species (click title to entry - thank you)April 29, 2009
It's getting to be old-hat. Following up on an earlier promise, US President Barack Obama has formally reversed yet another of his predecessor's policies, this one focusing on the institutional role of science in protecting endangered species (AP).
The rule in question was targeted at the so-called "Section 7 consultations" under the Endangered Species Act. Current regulations require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service to review all projects involving federal government for potential impacts to endangered species. The Bush administration's rule would have allowed other federal agencies to skip that review process if their own experts determined that it wasn't necessary.
In theory, such a system might improve things on the front end. The idea is that other federal agencies would have an incentive to integrate biology into the planning process rather than simply passing the environmental review to Fish and Wildlife, which comes in on the tail end and tries to straighten things out. For those worried about whether these initial agency reviews would be sufficient, the argument goes, lawsuits remain as a critical backstop.
But many environmentalists feared the administration was simply seeking to undercut environmental law. And indeed, the rule included language that would have given a default green light to any project if certain permitting schedules weren't met, a policy that naturally puts agencies on the defensive against eager business interests.
Environmentalists roundly hailed the Interior Department's decision but suggested that the administration could have gone a step further and eliminated a special rule that accompanied the Polar Bear's listing as a threatened species. That rule basically says that the Endangered Species Act cannot be used to block or shut down, say, coal-fired power plants in Arizona, even if those facilities would increase greenhouse gas emissions that would enhance global warming, melt more sea ice and therefore endanger the polar bear.
Seems like the ESA might not be the best place to regulate greenhouse gases, but we'll have to wait and see how that question plays out. Reuters quoted a Fish and Wildlife official saying that the administration plans to make a determination on that rule next month.
Posted by Jeff Tollefson on April 29, 2009 Yucca Mountain was the worst idea anyone had for the definitive nuclear waste dump. The fuel rods are an issue and they should be. There is no easy or quick answer to nuclear waste or nuclear reactors. For the first time in the history of the USA we may be acting to move beyond 'contrived manmade' methods to energy such as coal and nuclear and into a venue of harnessing the gifts Earth has in wind and solar to actually 'live on' Earth and 'with' Earth as a method of harmony rather than 'imposing human will' and expecting a finite planet to yield. Nuclear waste as 'an issue' forces the energy sector to come to the realization it is old, antiquiated and hostile toward life.
Published online 29 April 2009
Nature 458, 1086-1087 (2009)
doi:10.1038/4581086a
Yucca Mountain's end would leave the country with few alternatives for a long-term repository. (click here)
Amanda Leigh Mascarelli
Funding cut for US nuclear waste dump
Some ten billion dollars and two decades into the project, the proposed US nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain has hit a major and possibly decisive stumbling block: President Barack Obama has proposed eliminating all funding for scientific research on the deep-rock repository, 140 kilometres northwest of Las Vegas. As Yucca Mountain has been the United States' only potential long-term repository since 1987, the decision once again raises the issue of what to do with the country's high-level nuclear waste.
Safe Nuclear Power and Clean Coal Technology is like a Healthy Cigarette, it doesn't exist. The technologies and energy indulgences of the early 1900s where humans configured mechanisms for 'producing' energy have proven to be some of the most impossible 'safety' issues faced by any government of any people. There is no reason to continue to indulge industries that cannot solve their own problems, costing billions US annually without results or reasonable answers. When an industry fails to operate within manageable parameters to cost and burden to taxpayers there is serious implications to end the DEPENDENCE on such indulgences.
